That Voodoo You Do
by JWood201
Summary: Before he's turned into a zombie, the Professor tells Mary Ann the ancient native legend behind the pin Gilligan has given her. During "Voodoo."
1. Chapter 1

**That Voodoo You Do**

_This started as a chapter of "A Real Dressing Down," but it grew too much and I had to make it its own story. We've long talked about the pin from "Voodoo" – why he gave it to her, why she kept it after giving everything else back, why he was so proud of himself when he told Skipper about it. Why was it so special?_

**One**

When Mary Ann was three years old, four year old Horace Higgenbotham gave her a dead mouse he found on his porch. He thought it was the greatest thing ever. She cried for an hour and then gave it a proper funeral.

Her cousin Sam gave her his bedroom when she moved in with them, but that was only because his mother made him.

Her one and only boyfriend in high school actually gave her jewelry – a gold bracelet. It turned her wrist green.

Mr. Howell gives her his dinner order.

The Skipper gives her his pants to mend.

Gilligan once gave her a beautiful bouquet of flowers that wasn't actually from him.

He routinely gives her a funny fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach.

He also routinely gives her a headache.

So she is understandably astonished when Gilligan shows up at her hut one afternoon with a piece of painted native pottery overflowing with beautiful jewelry. On one of his routine explorations of the island, he found a cave filled to the brim with ancient relics – pottery, artwork, jewelry. Lots of jewelry. Mrs. Howell selected one brilliantly rich-looking piece, but Gilligan brought the bounty to the girls.

Mary Ann gasps and carries the jug carefully to the vanity. Her eyes grow wider and wider at every gorgeous piece that she pulls from the depths of the native jug. Beautiful cascading gold necklaces with turquoise jewels. Bracelets. Rings big enough to choke a horse.

"Gilligan!" she squeals as she stretches out her left arm to admire the giant purple stone she's slipped onto her finger. "Look at this one!" She holds up her hand and wiggles her fingers at him. The glittering gem is even bigger than Mrs. Howell's gargantuan engagement ring.

Mary Ann dives back into the jug, but Gilligan is still hovering near the door, nervously shifting from foot to foot, smiling secretively. She glances up at him and pauses, a waterfall of beads and jewels hanging through her fingers. She smiles uncertainly. "What?"

Gilligan inches into the hut. He has both hands behind his back. He looks scared, yet unusually proud of himself. "You and Ginger can go through that and decide what you want, but ... I picked something out for you."

A slow smile spreads across Mary Ann's face and it's like the sun just emerged from behind a cloud and lit up the room, like a flower blooming right in front of him and he has to look away, down at his sneakers in the dirt. "You did?"

Gilligan just nods and thrusts his arm out toward her. "Here."

Mary Ann steps forward and takes the object hidden in his fist. It's a giant oval brooch, pure gold, at least five inches across. She turns it over in her hands, the sunlight catching the dips and valleys hand-forged into the gold in perfect patterns, distinct markings that she can't decipher. She studies it for a long time before looking back up at Gilligan, who looks like he's in complete agony.

"Gilligan!" she squeals again and the wind is knocked out of him as she throws her arms around his neck. The stacks of bracelets on her wrists clang and dig into his back and the pile of necklaces she tried on press into his chest.

Gilligan blinks rapidly and gasps for air. "Do you like it?"

"Like it? I love it!" She kisses him on the cheek and holds up the gift, admiring it over his shoulder.

Mary Ann releases him suddenly and rushes back to the vanity. Gilligan sways unsteadily on his feet before staggering after her. Mary Ann peels off the necklaces and dumps them back in the jug. She hands Gilligan the pin and pulls her hair off her shoulder, angling it toward him. "Go ahead."

"What?"

"Put it on me."

Gilligan's eyes widen, transfixed on her shirt. "I ... I'll stick you with the pin. Why can't you –."

"Gilligan! You gave it to me! Come on!"

"But –!"

"Pin me, Gilligan!"

She grins up at him and he frowns. He's clumsy about it, but he eventually gets the pin through her shirt and fumbles to clasp it. He's nervously pinning it way too high, close to her shoulder. She tilts her head down to watch him and his knuckles brush her cheek. He flinches and almost stabs her with the pin, but she waits patiently until he finally gets it clasped. It's crooked and too high up, but she smiles at her reflection in the mirror, watching Gilligan squirm behind her.

Mary Ann squints, cocks her head as she looks into the glass. Something's not quite right. She quickly strips off the towers of bracelets. She yanks the giant ring from her finger and drops everything back into the native pot. The pin stands out now, shining in the sunlight. She grins. That's better.

She turns around and hugs him again before he has a chance to react. "Oh, Gilligan, you really are the sweetest. Thank you."

Gilligan grins and actually hugs her back. "You're welcome. Boy, Mrs. Howell didn't get this excited over _her _pin."

Gilligan feels Mary Ann tense in his arms and she pulls back. Mary Ann blinks up at him, confusion settling over her brow. "Mrs. Howell?"

"Sure. I found this great big fancy pin in the cave, too. I let her pick from the jewelry and that's what she wanted. It looks like something she'd wear."

Gilligan shrugs and he sees Mary Ann start to pout, just a little, probably unconsciously. "Does Ginger get a pin, too?"

Gilligan glances around the hut. How did Ginger get brought up? How did the entire mood change so quickly? "No. She can pick whatever she wants from the pot." He looks down at Mary Ann. "Everybody gets something. Mrs. Howell's like our mother here, you know that. And you're like my –."

Gilligan freezes. He has no idea what he was going to say. He's working this over in his mind and Mary Ann waits, peering up at him.

"Well, you're ... you're like ..."

"Your sister?"

"No," he replies quickly, maybe a little indignantly, and shakes his head to clear his mind. "I want to ask the Professor what the designs on it mean. I think the natives used it for something different than the other jewelry." He's changed the subject on purpose, but Mary Ann still looks skeptical. He's not entirely sure why, but he knows it's not what he wants. "I picked this out especially for you. It reminds me of you," he admits and then cringes. He can almost see the words hanging in the air between them, out in the open, taunting him.

Mary Ann's features unknot and her eyes widen. "Really?" she whispers.

"Well ... yeah. It was the only one like it in the cave. Everything else was real fancy and flashy, but this is beautiful 'cause it's natural. I just got the feeling that I needed to give it to you."

Mary Ann stares up at him through giant eyes. "Oh, Gilligan," she finally says again and looks for all the world like she's about to cry.

"Mary Ann, don't – ." In an instant, she wraps her arms around his middle and he yelps in surprise. He's quiet for a moment. "It won't turn your wrist green either," he adds and he feels her squeeze him tighter.

When Mary Ann shows the pin to the Professor the next day, his eyes light up and an impressed "ah!" escapes his lips and Mary Ann can sense that a lecture is imminent. He takes it from her gingerly, with the utmost respect, and carries it to the table to consult a book that's lying open to a page about native artifacts.

"Do you know what it is, Professor? Gilligan thinks it's different from all the other jewelry he found."

"Oh, it is. It is," the Professor murmurs, peering closely at the pin as he holds it next to a photo in the book.

"He said he felt like he was supposed to give it to me."

The Professor's head snaps up from the book so quickly that Mary Ann takes a step back. "He said that?" he asks, eyes wide, and Mary Ann nods. "Fascinating," he breathes and turns back to the table. Mary Ann watches him for a moment, flummoxed, and is about to ask why that's so important when he speaks again: "I wasn't convinced that these even existed. It's all legend. No one's ever found one." The Professor is now studying the designs on the pin through a magnifying glass. "They're usually destroyed when its owner dies."

"Why?"

The Professor looks up at her. "Because it's meant only for one person. No other woman can possess the same one."

The reverence in the Professor's voice stops Mary Ann in her tracks. He usually isn't as intrigued by the legends and stories associated with the relics they find as he is by their archaeological and sociological significance. "But what is it exactly?" she asks warily.

The Professor smiles. "It's a fascinating story, Mary Ann. Sit down." He puts down the magnifying glass and pulls a chair over for her, brimming with excitement over this apparently monumental find and the opportunity to tell its story. "There used to be a tribe in these islands called the Kupa Kai. Although fierce and dangerous, they were very spiritual people. Their past kings became gods and they believed that everything was preordained by these spirit leaders. They barely made a move without being convinced that it was absolutely correct, that it was their destiny."

"When a young Kupa Kai man comes of age," the Professor continues, "he's taken to the cave where the tribe's treasure is kept. He must then select an artifact. It can be anything – a necklace, a ring, a bracelet, a pin – anything as long as it has these markings." He cradles the pin in the palm of his hand and shows her the symbols forged in the gold. "These indicate the sacred concepts of destiny and fate. He isn't supposed to pick the most beautiful piece, or the one made from the most precious stones, but the one that he's drawn to for some inexplicable reason. The one that speaks to him, that he feels in his soul is the one he's supposed to select. When he sees it, he'll know."

"What does he do with it?"

"He carries it with him until it leads him to the woman he's supposed to give it to. He just feels it. This –" he holds the pin up and Mary Ann's eyes widen "– supposedly does all the work. It keeps him from making a mistake."

"But ... but Gilligan ..."

The Professor smiles and takes her hand, laying the pin gently on her palm. "This is a very important piece of history, Mary Ann. Everyone thought this tradition was just a myth."

Mary Ann looks down at the gold in her hand. She stares at it for a long time, feels the weight, the significance, tries to comprehend how old it really is. "Professor, if this survived, then that means it never found its rightful owner."

"That's where you're wrong." The Professor folds her fingers around the pin and holds her hand warmly in both of his own. "It found you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Two**

When Mary Ann was eleven years old, twelve year old Horace Higgenbotham gave her a kiss that she wasn't expecting and didn't want. He was extraordinarily proud of himself. She pushed him off his horse and cried for an hour.

Her cousin Sam gave her some questionable advice on the subject and then gave Horace a black eye.

Her one and only boyfriend in high school actually gave her her first real kiss and then gave her the news that he was taking a cheerleader to the prom.

Mr. Howell gives her his shirts to launder.

The Skipper gives her the slimy raw fish he catches for dinner.

Gilligan still routinely gives her a funny fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach.

He also unwittingly just gave her an ancient native symbol of love and commitment.

_Now, of course, it's impossible for a piece of jewelry to actually lead anyone to anyone,_ the Professor had continued, obliviously sailing along as Mary Ann stared down at the pin in her hand in shock._ Voodoo and magic spells are just superstitions, like I've been telling you all week. I believe their hearts told them who to give the item to. _The Professor's lecture slipped away and he added sincerely, _But it is a lovely story, isn't it?_

Mary Ann could barely hear him. She could barely see. Her heart banged against her ribs. She felt like she weighed four thousand pounds, like she was sinking into the ground. She swallowed hard. _So it really is like 'getting pinned'?_ she joked feebly when she finally found her voice.

The Professor grinned. _Well, in native tradition, it's more like an engagement ring_. He laughed at the look on her face, pained and thrilled and horrified all at once.

_But Gilligan's not a Kupa Kai_, she insisted.

The Professor just smiled and shook his head, sitting back in his chair. _I don't think you should tell Gilligan about the legend._ _Not yet, at least_.

Then he winked. The Professor actually winked.

Mary Ann stares at the Professor now, unmoving in the middle of the clearing, where he's been for over a day, still as a statue. A zombie. Ridiculous.

But there's no denying that something unexplainable happened to him. As unexplainable as gut feelings drawing people to pieces of jewelry.

Mary Ann isn't normally a superstitious person, but the more unsettling things that happen around the island – the inexplicable heat under their feet in the cave, the zombification of Roy Hinkley – the more suspicious Mary Ann becomes of her pin and the legend behind it.

But she's also equally delighted and intrigued. There's something to these ancient native legends – voodoo and witchdoctors and fate and destiny. Multiple times over the past few days Gilligan would stop mid-sentence and squint at the pin on Mary Ann's shirt and shake his head. _I don't get it,_ he'd say. _For some reason, I knew I was supposed to give you that. I don't know why._

When Mary Ann wears the pin, she's self-conscious about it, as if the whole world knows what it means. When she doesn't wear it, Gilligan asks her over and over where it is and she finds that she misses it.

She's wearing it today in the clearing as the Professor stares off into the distance, native dances and returning the artifacts and the legendary seduction powers of Ginger Grant all failing to un-zombie him.

De-zombie? Ex-zombie? _Dis-zombie?_

Mary Ann watches Gilligan wave his hand in front of the Professor's face. The Skipper is nearby, shaking his head, out of ideas, yet babbling authoritatively. He sputters to a stop and peers at Mary Ann closely. "Mary Ann, isn't that pin one of the relics?"

"Yeah, I gave it to her!" Gilligan offers almost before the Skipper is even done talking. He grins down at Mary Ann and then up at the Skipper, but the captain isn't smiling. Mary Ann senses where this is going and lays a hand protectively over the pin.

Mary Ann only hears the end of his next sentence. She should have known. When she packed up the rest of the jewelry into the painted native pot to be sent back to the cave, she somehow thought this artifact would be immune because it's _hers_. It found her just like it was supposed to. Just like the legend says.

It has no bearing on the Professor's condition because it doesn't belong to the island or the witchdoctor or the spirits or anyone else. It's _hers_. When she dies, it has to be destroyed. Just like the legend says.

_... should be going back with the rest of the stuff!_

Mary Ann tightens her hand over the pin and looks up at Gilligan, who's staring at the Skipper in shock. She wills him to say something, to stand up for her, but he won't. She stares at him imploringly, pleadingly, but she knows he won't say anything.

Mary Ann sees herself hand the pin over to the Skipper, like it's an out of body experience. Everything seems to be happening in slow motion and against her will. She watches the Skipper reach out and take it from her, feels the weight leave her fingers, the feel of the markings forged into the gold lingering on her fingertips, and her stomach drops into her feet.

She exhales audibly, her soul leaving her body, and she looks up at Gilligan as he gapes at the Skipper. He's no longer concerned about Mary Ann having to give the pin back. It's not his fault, he doesn't understand the significance. Now he's worried about taking it back to the cave alone and has started one of his circular arguments with the captain.

Mary Ann stares at the ground as the two men bicker. The Skipper eventually outsmarts Gilligan and hands him the pin and the first mate trudges away through the jungle with her heart in his hand. Mary Ann meets the Skipper's eye before turning away herself, leaving him with a pointed look that she hopes is heartbreaking enough to keep him up at night.

Over the next few days, things return mostly to normal. Gilligan found all their missing items in the cave along with voodoo dolls resembling each of them. Ginger and the Howells were horrified at their likenesses and Mary Ann found the whole thing incredibly creepy and didn't want her doll. She doesn't know where it is now, probably in the boys' hut – Gilligan had taken to acting out entertaining scenes of island life with the dolls, playing all seven roles with his uncanny impersonations of each castaway.

The Professor awoke from his paralysis and still could not be convinced that the dolls had any power and refused to believe that he had been a zombie. But he also couldn't explain what happened to him and had no idea where his lost few days went.

Everyone goes about their business as usual, but Mary Ann feels a little lost, like a little piece of her is missing. It's absurd, she only had the pin for a few days, but she thinks about it constantly. It's _hers_. It found her.

It led Gilligan to her and even though he doesn't know why and most likely nothing would change, it still gives her a small amount of comfort. The legend is true. Maybe one day she'll tell Gilligan about it.

Mary Ann is in her hut when Gilligan appears, hovering in the doorway, both hands behind his back. He watches her brush her hair, shifting impatiently from foot to foot, smiling secretively. Mary Ann meets his eye in the mirror and smiles uncertainly. "What?"

Gilligan thrusts his arm out toward her. "Here."

Mary Ann stands and approaches him. As she gets closer, the sunlight catches a familiar gold object lying on his palm. "Gilligan!" she squeals and throws her arms around him.

He staggers back a few feet and laughs. "I figured it was safe to go get it now that the Professor's back and the witchdoctor's gone."

"Oh, Gilligan, thank you!"

"Just don't let the Skipper see it for a while, okay? He's still kinda jumpy about this voodoo stuff."

"I won't. I promise."

"It's weird, Mary Ann. I kept thinking about it after I took all the relics back. I just had this feeling that you needed to have it. I even dreamt about it." Mary Ann pulls back – he looks a little confused, but mostly very serious and awed. "I just know that it's supposed to be yours."

"So do I." Mary Ann hands him the pin, sweeping her hair off her shoulder and angling it toward him. "What was your dream about?"

"Oh, it was real swell," he says, beginning to pin the relic to her shirt. "I dreamt we were all natives, right? With grass skirts and feathers and crazy war paint. And the Chief, that was the Skipper, he took me to this cave filled with treasure and told me to pick something out. Anything, as long as I felt it was the right thing to pick." Mary Ann watches him as he happily relates his dream to her, not once stabbing her or fumbling with the pin. "So I picked this. There were all sorts of big fancy necklaces and rings in the cave, but I knew I was supposed to pick this. I carried it around for a while, but I didn't know what to do with it. The only idea that I kept having over and over again was that I should give it to you. I didn't know why, it wasn't your birthday or anything, but it's the only thing I could think of. I woke up before I figured it out."

Gilligan shrugs and gets the pin clasped. They both turn and look into the mirror. They stand side by side, he a little behind her, and they look like a family portrait in the glass. He put the pin on straight this time and in a more normal position, not way high up on her shoulder, and he looks proud of himself, confident even. They smile at each other in the mirror and Mary Ann tugs on his shirt playfully.

"This is the nicest thing a man's ever given me. I mean that."

Gilligan blushes faintly before his eyes light up. "Hey, the Professor told me that there's a legend behind it!"

"He did?"

"Yeah, but he wouldn't tell me what it is. Do you know?"

He's staring down at her hopefully, like a child anticipating a great new story. Mary Ann actually considers telling him the truth for a moment. "Well. Not entirely, no. Just that the person who finds it knows who they're supposed to give it to." Mary Ann's watching him closely, gauging his reactions. His eyes are wide, thrilled that the legend seems to be true. "It's like the relic tells them to give it to a certain person," she continues. Mary Ann peers up at him, tries her luck. "Someone ... special."

Gilligan thinks about this for a second and a slow smile begins spreading across his face. Soon he's grinning inanely, looking more pleased with himself than he has in a long time. "Wow, Mary Ann. You must be pretty special. I gave the pin to you _twice_!"


End file.
